Atheist Children

The first thing I must acknowledge is the fact that I don't have children. There are many reasons why but the most obvious would be the fact that I consider myself too young, despite what my mother says, and I haven't found anyone whose DNA I want to mix with mine.

I adore children's books and the other day I found The Story of Everything, a pop-up book about evolution, at Ross. I was reading it to my 8 year old niece and 3 month old nephew. My nephew didn't seem to care for it but my niece was incredibly interested. She's being raised Catholic and is familiar with their story of creation but she was very accepting of the fact that there was a big bang 15 million years ago and life started in the sea 365 million years ago. In fact, she summed up the entire book when we were done with, "So there was a big bang, then there were fishes, then the fish grew legs and turned into dinosaurs. There was a boom (the sound I made for the meteorite), most of them died, mammals took over and smart monkeys turned into humans? Then the humans made cities and in another million years we might turn into something else?"

The entire event made me wonder... what books do atheists read to their children? How do atheists raise children in a theistic world? And does anyone else try to influence the children of their family to question the religion of their parents?

I'm sorry if this has been asked before. I searched the first five pages in the forums I thought most likely to have it and didn't find anything so I started my own discussion.

I'm not sure how much my point of view is going to help because I too am too young for children (Im an opinionated teenager). Anyhoo, My parents did not raise me to be an atheist but they did not raise me to be religious. I know that my parents (maybe just my mom) hold belife in a god but she have never inforced it on me. My mom is what she calls a 'recovering catholic' and was determined not to raise me in the way she was. I was taken to a sunday school when I was little (it was not christian or jewish, it was Baha'i) but it never stuck so we just stopped going.

I guess what im trying to say is just raise them to question things but find the answers themselves

I have three daughters and I raised the youngest from one yr old to twelve. As she was growing up she was very smart and curious. She went to a lot of different churches with friends and even had an interest in Buddism.

As she moved through the years she would come up with questions and I always had the feeling she was asking after things other kids had told her. I always tried not to answer directly but to give bits of opinions and ask questions I thought she should be asking. The kinds of things used to increase critical thinking skills. She reached her own conclusions and she is now an atheist and claims none of the religions she knows makes any sense.

I was raised Catholic, am now Athiest, and want to let you know that the Catholic Church does not believe in Creationism. That was the one thing I could cling to back in those days. You may not have been the first person to expose your niece to the Big Bang Theory. From grade school through high school my classmates and I were taught that Genesis was a symbolic story of God's power but Catholics weren't so naive to think it could happen in seven days. Just wanted to let you know. You can check it out. Catholics believe in evolution. There were no Catholics or even Jesus riding dinosaurs. :)

I'm a new dad. In fact my baby girl will be 1 year old tomorrow. I'm open to her learning about all religions (and science) because I want her to have the knowledge and be able to draw from the whole of all sides of any debate. I trust that she will be logical and rational enough to make the a decision based on evidenced fact when the time comes. So, to answer your question about books. I think ALL books should be read. Choosing only books from one side or another is biased and hypocritical. If you give everyone all the information available, they will be able to make better more informed decisions. I will raise my daughter to question everything including me and my opinions based on knowledge from all sides of the issue. That's the only fair way to do it. I think we all have to have a duty to provide and study every shred of knowledge possible, so that logic, reason and rationality will prevail.

Then, I told him, "Well, lightning makes thunder, too." To which he responds, "No, God and Thor make thunder."

I asked him, "Well, if two can make thunder, then why can't a third?" So, he looks at me for a few seconds where he is clearly thinking about what I've just told him, then says, "So, God, Thor, and lightning make thunder? Yeah. God, Thor, and lightning can all make thunder."

(To provide some brief background info, my sister and brother-in-law take my nephew to church frequently, so my nephew believes there is a god. My brother-in-law is also a comic book fanatic, so the "Thor" in question is the one from the comics. Also, it is fascinating to hear my nephew say the name of every major comic book character and every character from He-Man, and Thundercats.)

I am a mother of a four-year-old boy. We read many books together, watch tons of movies and shows together, and sing jingles and songs. I have done an independent study of sorts on indoctrination, and I understand that indoctrination is hard work. I also do not think it is fair to declare a child anything (Christian, Muslim, atheist, Republican, Democrat, socialist, fascist, etc). I encourage freethinking, and I know that that is a two-sided coin for me. As much as I would like to expose my son to just evolution, big bang, relative morality, etc, I do not want to do the very thing I don't want others to do....monopolize my child's perception of the world. I allow Vin to watch any show that he is interested in (age appropriate, of course). If he wants to watch The Prince of Egypt or Disney's Dinosaur, I allow it. If he sees a book at the library about the navitivy story or Noah's ark and wants to borrow it, I allow it. He learned at day care, much to my dismay, the "God is Great, God is Good" grace. If he wants to say it, I allow it. I don't like it. But that is his choice. However, I do not shield him from my conversations. If adults are sitting at the table discussing how awful religion is an my son walks into the room, the conversation continues as before. One day he will ask me about God. I'm sure of it. And my answer will be, "I don't believe there is a god. But your grandmother does. Maybe you should ask her what god is.". He is a person, not an experiment or property. Let him decide. And he will. And he will change his mind a million times. But that is a good thing because his mind will always be his own.

So far, his interest has been primarily with dinosaurs and firetrucks. And of course, we have read about evolution and big bang. We've also read Aesop's fables and his favorite movie at the moment is "Sinbad". I think he'll be okay. But, I could be wrong. Parenting is not easy.

I am in the same boat with my 9 year old, aside from all the reading everyone else does. ha My son will ask me questions both for and not about god, and my honest answer is that it is something he needs to decide. The one thing i try to do is ask my son logical questions that force him to think past god. ie aliens I really don't think it is that hard to raise your child as you see fit, and most of his friends that belive in god don't even know why.